b'Source: DSPEurope as a key market but with emphasis also on developing mar-kets in Brazil, China, India and Africa.Syngentas European Field Crop Seed Development research team is focused on the development of forage maize (grain or silage), mostly dent maize, while the firms early grain and silage breeding groups focus on flint. At Corteva, Heffner explains that we are primarily focused on dent corn globally for grain and silage from early temperate to late tropical maturities. We also have specific efforts toward delivering white, waxy, food-grade corn hybrids. Company Mais also breeds hybrids of specialty white, waxy and high-lysine corn, developing appropriate analogues of the best conventional hybrids. BREEDING TARGETSFor several of these breeding companies, guarding yield stabil-ity/security is paramount. This means the development of robust hybrids able to achieve good or even outstanding yields in the face of a wide range of growing conditions.As explained by Knczl, Syngentas primary breeding objective is to continuously increase yields in a sustainable way by improving yield security and reducing the negative effects of any type of environmental stressor. The European corn-growing envi-ronment is a very diverse one, both in terms of the environment and the applied farming practices used, he notes. If we look at the climatic variability of the European maize-growing zones, we can observe that during the sensitive period of the [crops] phenological development, temperatures are on the rise, which is increasingly associated with a hectic rainfall distribution, but also decreasing rainfall [overall]. Therefore, above all, increasing resistance to heat and drought stress are of paramount importance. Stable corn performance under changing environments is also a key focus at Limagrain Field Seeds. Besides yield potential and sustainability, says Beaufum, a significant and growing propor-tion of our research efforts are done in the domain of disease andIvan Halechkopest resistances (trait discovery, pathology platforms). SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPEISEED WORLD EUROPE I 7'